HOMEBREW Digest #657 Wed 12 June 1991

FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:Two more breweries to visit... (Gary Mason 11-Jun-1991 0819)Punts (adams)alt.brew (Joe Kagenski)Mashing Dextrin Malts4th down and .... (BAUGHMANKR)Re: Homebrew Digest #656 (June 11, 1991) (Laura Lawson)Starting yeast (Matthias Blumrich)Brewery Tours in Britain (Marc San Soucie)Request for info on the other London (FREEMAN)Primitive Brewing (Kevin L. Scoles)
Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmi at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmi at hplabs.hp.com
[Please do not send me requests for back issues]
Archives are available from netlib at mthvax.cs.miami.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 08:21:36 -0400
From: mason at habs11.ENET.DEC.COM (Gary Mason 11-Jun-1991 0819)
Subject: Two more breweries to visit...
re Brewery tours...
I am planning on Sam Smith's Old Brewery in Tadcaster (Yorkshire), and Hall
and Woodhouse in Blandford Forum (Wiltshire) on my September trip. For me,
these are on the "must visit" list.
Cheers...Gary
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 08:38:44 EDT
From: adams at bostech.com
Subject: Punts
> My question is:
> Why is there a punt?
Haven't spent my honeymoon last summer in Napa Valley sipping a wide assortment
of wines, I have heard a few explanations for the punt. The most common (and
reasonable IMO) is that the quality of glass used to be unreliable at best.
Glass is weakened by expansion, and strengthened by compression. The pressure
from the champagne compresses the punt, thereby greatly increasing the probab-
ility that the bottle will survive the aging and transportation processes.
The glass bottles built today probably don't need punts, but punts don't hurt,
and there's a tradition now.
I've also been told that the "proper" way to poor champagne is by sticking
your thumb in the punt with your fingers cradling the lower side of the
bottle, pouring with one hand by tipping your lower arm. It's easier to do
than it sounds. Yoiu get really good balance and control. I recommend that you
practice alot at home before trying it at a party.
Dave (adams at bostech.com)
Boston Technology
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 08:29:42 EDT
From: kagenski at apollo.hp.com (Joe Kagenski)
Subject: alt.brew
alt.brew is now showing up at our site, Does anyone know if this
group is new?
Also, has any consideration been given to combine/cross-feed this
with the other?
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 12:02:43 -0400
From: strasser at raj2.tn.cornell.edu (Tom Strasser)
Subject: Mashing Dextrin Malts
I realize there has been much written on this in the past weeks,
but I have not heard a complete explanation, ala Dave Miller, at least
not the way I understand it. Many subscribers have written the pros and
cons of mashing crystal and dextrins malts, asking whether the enzymes
in the mash break down the dextrins added for body into fermentable
sugars.
The way I understand it, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is
the principle enzymes active in the starch conversion are alpha and beta
amylase. These work by breaking the long strings of glucose molecules
in a starch into shorter strings (in different ways, but that is not
pertinent to this discussion). The catch is that these amylases are
only capable of breaking 1-4 links in the glucose chain ( a bonding
structure creating a linear chain of glucose ). The dextrins in malt
also have side branches off the linear chains, which are connected by
1-6 links, which can only be broken by another enzyme, dextrinase (which
is present in malt but very termperature sensitive, and therefore
eliminated in the kilning of even light malts). The result of this is
that glucose chains or molecules are broken off the ends of a dextrin
until a 1-6 branch is reached, at which point the amylases are unable to
break any more bonds. The resulting dextrin is called a limit dextrin
because the amylase enzymes can break it down no further. For this
reason, there should be no problem with mashing crystal or dextrin malts
because the body and head retention enhancing effects should result from
limit dextrins which remain even after an extended starch conversion
rest.
Sound about right folks? Please e-mail me directly with any
more valuble insights into this process.
Tom Strasser (strasser at raj5.tn.cornell.edu)
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1991 12:07 EST
From: BAUGHMANKR at CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU
Subject: 4th down and ....
Carl West wanted to know why there is a punt:
Back before the days of bulk charmat/filtration or the methode de
champenois for carbonating champagne, the punt collected the yeast
sediment, allowing for a clean pour into the champagne glass.
Kinney Baughman
baughmankr at conrad.appstate.edu
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 09:12:48 PDT
From: laurel%moondancer at Sun.COM (Laura Lawson)
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #656 (June 11, 1991)
Please remove laurel at moondancer from this alias.
Thank you
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 12:57:03 -0400
From: Matthias Blumrich <mb at Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Starting yeast
Hi. The last time I made a lager I filled a beer bottle with sediment
from the primary and stuck in in the fridge with an air lock. That was
about a month ago. I want to make a porter now and I'd like to reuse
the yeast. I got some dry malt extract so I can make a little wort. My
question is, how should I go about doing this? I have large (24oz) beer
bottles, so should I make like 15oz of wort and then add some of the
sediment? Or is that not enough? Papazian mentions culturing in beer
bottle size portions, so I think it should be ok...
- Matt -
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 11:14:42 PDT
From: marcs at SLC.COM (Marc San Soucie)
Subject: Brewery Tours in Britain
Mike Charlton asks:
> A friend and I are going to Britain for a few weeks in August (hopefully
> catch the CAMRA beer festival) and I was wondering if there was anyone
> out there who could recommend any brewery tours. We will be going all
> over the place, so we could theoretically hit anything in Britain. Also,
> I've heard that it's best to contact the brewery ahead of time to find
> out when tours are happening. That being the case, could someone give me
> a pointer to the addresses of likely breweries so I can send them a letter.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Mike Charlton
Desmond Mottram replies:
> A small selection straight off the top of my head:
> Hook Norton, Banbury, Oxon.
> Wadworths, Devizes, Wilts.
> Youngs, Wandsworth, London.
> Fullers, Chiswick, London.
Another brewery tour most highly recommended to American visitors is at the
Samuel Smith brewery in Tadcaster, Yorkshire. I've taken the tour once and
missed it by a day once. In neither case was I disappointed, because even if
you cannot do the tour, the Angel And White Horse pub next door, owned by the
brewery, offers one of the most lavish and sumptuous English lunches
imaginable, washed down, of course, by fine Samuel Smith ales and stouts
(emphasis on the plurals).
The tour that I took some years back occupied about two hours of the early
after, and encompassed the entire brewery, from stables to bungs. The brewery
is a marvel to behold, as they continue to use a few pieces of equipment from
their early days in the late 1700's. There is nothing sterile and
over-modernized about this place. It speaks volumes about its gradual and
thoughful evolution from a tiny backwoods brewery to its current status as a
tiny backwoods brewery with an international reputation. There were also, you
might imagine, some fine free samples at the end - I recall being regaled with
a pair of pints, and purchased a set of engraved SS pint glasses to bring home
with me - pride of the collection.
Their brewing practices are fascinating, the building is gothic in its peculiar
suitability to the task, and the very town of Tadcaster, for most people a dull
semi-industrial backwater, is itself a monument to beer and brewing, sporting
besides Sam Smith a John Smith, Magnet, and Bass brewery. And all within 4
hours' drive of London. Call ahead and schedule your trip around this tour. You
will be rewarded handsomely.
Marc San Soucie
Portland, Oregon
marcs at slc.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1991 17:42:39 EDT
From: FREEMAN at huhepl.harvard.edu
Subject: Request for info on the other London
I would greatly appreciate any information regarding brewpubs or other
reputable establishments of interest to the beer enthusiast in the London,
Ontario area. (Any other HBD subscribers that are attending the IEEE/AP-S
conference and that are interested in checking out the local pub seen between
presentations feel free to look me up.) Please e-mail directly to me. Thanks.
Kent Freeman
freeman at huhepl.harvard.edu
or
freeman at huhepl.bitnet
brew free and recycle or die
Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1991 00:26:15 -0500
From: kscoles at pnet51.orb.mn.org (Kevin L. Scoles)
Subject: Primitive Brewing
Greetings again.
I belong to a living history organization (Clann Tartan Scottish Pike Troop)
which performed at a 1730s Theme Park. For my part, I mashed out 6 gallons of
all grain beer ... Over an open fire.
All equipment had to be in the period of 1630 to 1730. For kettles I used
enameled canners. For a sparge tun I used a new nail cask and a muslin sparge
bag (from the U.S. Treasury). Regulating a wood fire to 152 degrees for two
hours is a bit of a task. And the ashes were sure to cange the pH. Flies?
What flies?
I guess the only reason I am even sending this is becase it was a good time.
My character would not have been able to afford a hydrometer (if they even
existed back then (thank goodness thermometers did)) so I didn't even take a
specific gravity. It was fun to answer peoples questions on how I cultured
the yeast by soaking grapes in a malt medium, and showing them how to crack 7
pounds of 2 row malt with a rock on a plank. It was also neet to see the
knowing looks from all the old timers (since Minnesota has a long brewing
history).
The beer is still in the primary, but when it is done, I will write agian.
So if you want to put the troubles of dry hopping and trub and keg laws and
all that stuff out of the way, you might want to do an out doors mash and get
back to the basics just for the fun of it.
Later kls
UUCP: {tcnet, crash, quest}!orbit!pnet51!kscoles
ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!kscoles at nosc.mil
INET: kscoles at pnet51.orb.mn.org
Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #657, 06/12/91
*************************************
-------